A History of the Mahrattas v2.c42.2

v2.c42.2

A.D. 1788.—The reports of Tippoo’s hostile intentions became less prevalent during the early part of 1788; and this apparent tranquillity afforded a favourable opportunity of carrying into effect the intentions of the Governor-General respecting the district of Guntoor, which, by the treaty concluded with Nizam Ally in 1768, ought to have been ceded to the English upon the death of Busalut Jung in 1782. Captain Kennaway was the agent deputed for the purpose of obtaining its surrender; but the motive of his mission was kept secret until he could reach Hyderabad, and preparations be completed at Madras for supporting the demand. Soon after Captain Kennaway’s departure from Calcutta, it was again confidently reported that Tippoo was engaged in hostile machinations; that an attack made upon Tillicherry by the Raja of Cherika was at his instigation; and that he meditated the subjugation of the territories of the Raja of Travancore, the ally of the English, which formed an important preliminary to the conquest of the British settlements in the south of India. Captain Kennaway, in consequence of these reports, was instructed to confine his immediate communications to general expressions of the great desire of the Governor-General to maintain the most amicable understanding with the Soobeh of the Deccan in all affairs that might arise requiring adjustment. But soon after, as appearances bespoke no immediate hostility on the part of Tippoo, and Nizam Ally seemed disposed to settle everything with the British Government in an equitable manner, the demand for Guntoor was made and the district given over without impediment, and almost without hesitation, in September, 1788. Notwithstanding his apparent readiness, Nizam Ally was greatly mortified at finding himself compelled to surrender Guntoor; but he was by this time sensible that, of the four great powers in India, his own was the weakest; and that without a steadfast alliance with some one of the other three, his sovereignty must be swallowed up. The Mahrattas, from contiguity and from their claims and peculiar policy, he most dreaded; personally, he was inclined to form an alliance with the Mahomedan ruler of Mysore; but some of his ministers, particularly Meer Abdool Kassim, in whom he had great confidence, strongly advised him to prefer a connexion with the English, and endeavoured to show by what means the late concession might be made instrumental in effecting the desired object. He proposed that as the English had obtained possession of Guntoor, they should be called upon to fulfil those articles of the treaty of 1768, by which they had agreed to furnish the Hyderabad state with two battalions and six pieces of cannon; to reduce the territories of Tippoo, and to pay the Soobeh of the Deccan a certain annual tribute. Nizam Ally, acceding to these suggestions, dispatched Meer Abdool Kassim to Calcutta, for the purpose of obtaining the concurrence of the Governor-General. With his habitual duplicity, however, Nizam Ally at the same time sent another envoy¹ to Tippoo, proposing a strict and indissoluble union between the Mahomedan states; to which Tippoo declared his readiness to subscribe, on condition of an intermarriage in their families; but the Moghul haughtily rejected such a connexion, and the negotiation terminated.